Archive for January, 2018

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Persuasion is the ability to get people to agree with you, and it is a skill you can learn. Here are seven tips to help you be more persuasive and to get the results you need.

Be consistent. This means that you walk your talk, and your words and actions are in sync. Consistency is the foundation; you cannot be persuasive without it since it establishes your credibility.

Be credible. Credibility means that others believe what you say and rely on you to keep your word. The two together lead to trust.

Be trustworthy. When people trust you, you can persuade them to your point of view. At this stage, it is vitally important than you do nothing to damage the trust they have for you. It is almost impossible to regain trust once it is broken.

Be honest. Trust requires you to make honest, factual statements that come from sound, qualified sources. Exaggeration or hyperbole may be accepted initially, but will damage your credibility and trustworthiness over time. Be careful to clearly identify your personal positions as beliefs or opinions.

Be transparent. Speak up if something happens that affects your team or deliverables and accept accountability by admitting mistakes and acting to remedy them. This deepens the trust you have with others and improves your ability to be persuasive.

Have you heard of the Pareto Principle? Many people have and use it to be more positively productive every day. If you haven’t, here’s a quick explanation of what it is and how you can use it.

In the 1800s, Italian economist Vilferdo Pareto studied the wealth and income distribution in Europe. He discovered that approximately 20 percent of population held 80 percent of the wealth. The ratio held when it was extended to other areas and became known as the “Pareto distribution” or the “80/20 Rule.”

The 80/20 Rule states that roughly 80% of effects come from 20% of causes. For example, 80 percent of your profits will come from 20 percent of your customers, and 80 of complaints you receive also will come from 20 percent of your customers! Sometimes, the distribution skews one way or another—90/10 or 85/15, but generally it holds true.

Applying the Pareto Principle at work means that 20 percent of your activities will produce 80 percent of the results you need. The more you focus on the 20 percent that delivers the 80 percent, the more positively productive you are. The key is identifying the 20 percent that matters!

Look at your job description and performance plan. What results are you being held accountable to achieve? What is in the top tier of importance? Is the client conversion project more important than the monthly sales report? Is the new marketing plan implementation more important than the stack of performance evaluations on your desk?

Each time you decide to focus on a task, ask yourself if you are working on the most important task you can in the moment? Are you working on the critical 20 percent? Stopping to answer these questions will help you focus on the key tasks. See my blog posts Priorities Matter and Juggling Multiple Deadlines Using Paired Comparison for more information you can use.

Workplace stress is epidemic, and just about everyone experiences a level of stress every day. According to a survey on workplace stress from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 40 percent of respondents stated that their jobs were very or extremely stressful! The report sites these contributing factors that lead to stress: “Heavy workload, infrequent rest breaks, long work hours and shiftwork; hectic and routine tasks that have little inherent meaning, do not utilize workers’ skills, and provide little sense of control.”

Here are some tools to help you identify and reduce work-related stress in your department.

Require everyone to take short stretch breaks every 60 to 90 minutes. Sitting for too long is physically debilitating and detrimental to health, and focusing for more than 60 or 90 minutes reduces productivity. A short break is necessary to relive physical and mental stress.

Make sure every team member understands your expectations about deliverables, deadlines, and performance measures. Stress can mount when employees are unsure of themselves or their roles in your organization.

Provide opportunities for employees to take training and learn new skills. This shows that you appreciate them and are willing to invest in their development. Raising morale and improving motivation are stress-busters.

As a manager, you need to evaluate if your work environment is negatively stressing your team and take steps to create a stress-free workplace. See my blog posts Take Action to Manage Stress and Stress Busters for more information.

Delegation is one of the most productive skills you can master. It not only helps you leverage your time, it helps you develop the leadership skills of your team. When you skillfully delegate, you turn over the execution of an assignment or task to someone you trust to deliver the results you need. Here are some tips to make delegation successful.

Generally, any activity that can be done by someone on your team rather than by you is a likely task to be delegated. Don’t spend your time doing things you don’t have to do.

Match an employee’s skills with the skills needed to succeed, but provide the employee with an opportunity to grow and develop.

Set up the employee for success. Meet and explain the importance of the assignment, your expectations for deliverables, any deadlines, and their level of authority to make decisions.

Be available during the assignment to answer questions and give feedback.

Avoid micromanaging, but have an open door for questions and guidance. Trust your employees to deliver!

Remember, the more you develop your staff, the more you and your team will be positively productive, and delegation is one of the best ways to do this. See my blog post Avoid These Delegation Pitfalls for more information.

Have you left work at the end of the day and wondered where the time went? Do you ever feel exhausted even though you haven’t accomplished anything? If so, your productivity is leaking away. Let’s look at some common areas of productivity drain and what you can do to plug them!

Email Drains

How many emails do you get daily? If you’re like most people, you’re averaging 121 emails a day, and that number is going up. Most workers spend more than 11 hours a week on email alone. It is not surprising that it’s a huge drain on your productivity. Here are some tips from my Writing and Managing Email class to make the job easier.

Unless it’s your job to answer emails when they arrive. Stop. Set specific times during the day to open and respond to them. You’ll save time and get more done than you would by answering emails as they arrive.

Use rules to pre-sort emails from key people and on key projects; you save time not having to look for them. See my blog post Use Rules to Manage Email.

Set up folders to easily file completed emails and implement a follow-up system to keep track of incomplete ones. See my blog post Don’t Let Someone Hold You Up for information.

Meeting Drains

Approximately 33 percent of your time is spent at meetings. The key to plugging this drain on your productivity is to vet each meeting before agreeing to attend. Find out what decisions need to be made at the meeting and what part you are expected to play. If you can delegate attendance to a member of your team, do so. See my blog post Don’t Let Meetings Run Your Day for more information.

Interruptions

Interruptions are another productivity drain. It can take up to 20 minutes to regain your focus when you are interrupted. The key is to take control of your time! Be assertive about telling people you can’t talk right now, but will call them later. Close your door if you have one; otherwise, remove your guest chair or pile stuff on it so visitors cannot sit. See my blog post Take Charge of Interruptions.

Is your productivity leaking? If so, be more positively productive by implementing these tips and plug those productivity drains.

January 8

Delegate to Be More Positively Productive

Delegation is one of the most productive skills you can master. It not only helps you leverage your time, it helps you develop the leadership skills of your team. When you skillfully delegate, you turn over the execution of an assignment or task to someone you trust to deliver the results you need. Here are some tips to make delegation successful.

Generally, any activity that can be done by someone on your team rather than by you is a likely task to be delegated. Don’t spend your time doing things you don’t have to do.

Match an employee’s skills with the skills needed to succeed, but provide the employee with an opportunity to grow and develop.

Set up the employee for success. Meet and explain the importance of the assignment, your expectations for deliverables, any deadlines, and their level of authority to make decisions.

Be available during the assignment to answer questions and give feedback.

Avoid micromanaging, but have an open door for questions and guidance. Trust your employees to deliver!

Remember, the more you develop your staff, the more you and your team will be positively productive, and delegation is one of the best ways to do this. See my blog post Avoid These Delegation Pitfalls for more information.

January 15

Does Your Workplace Stress Your Team?

Workplace stress is epidemic, and just about everyone experiences a level of stress every day. According to a survey on workplace stress from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 40 percent of respondents stated that their jobs were very or extremely stressful! The report sites these contributing factors that lead to stress: “Heavy workload, infrequent rest breaks, long work hours and shiftwork; hectic and routine tasks that have little inherent meaning, do not utilize workers’ skills, and provide little sense of control.”

Here are some tools to help you identify and reduce work-related stress in your department.

Require everyone to take short stretch breaks every 60 to 90 minutes. Sitting for too long is physically debilitating and detrimental to health, and focusing for more than 60 or 90 minutes reduces productivity. A short break is necessary to relive physical and mental stress.

Make sure every team member understands your expectations about deliverables, deadlines, and performance measures. Stress can mount when employees are unsure of themselves or their roles in your organization.

Provide opportunities for employees to take training and learn new skills. This shows that you appreciate them and are willing to invest in their development. Raising morale and improving motivation are stress-busters.

As a manager, you need to evaluate if your work environment is negatively stressing your team and take steps to create a stress-free workplace. See my blog posts Take Action to Manage Stress and Stress Busters for more information.

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